Stop Wasting Your Time and Your Health

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Why Give a Damn:

Time is at a premium for everyone, especially innovators, start-ups and entrepreneurs. To prevent time wasters, there are three questions you must never forget to ask. In the second post of her 3-part series, Ann reveals the second question that will save you time, money, and your health.

The author of this post, Ann Garvin is an author, speaker and professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy.

Health takes time. Fitting health into your business takes time. Time is at a premium for everyone, innovators, start-ups and entrepreneurs. Wasting time is easy to do where health is concerned.

It is easy to do, because there is so much misinformation where health is concerned. Health is big business. We are all looking for a quick and easy way to understand and incorporate health into our lives and so it can be tempting to throw caution to the wind. Sometimes we don’t ask the right questions.

For example, in the past three days students have asked me the following questions:

Is it true my underwire bra will give me breast cancer?

Should I get a colon cleanse to rid myself of toxins?

Is Splenda one molecule away from formaldehyde?

How can I help these people stop wasting their time and energy? How can I bring them to health instead of scaring them away from it? Building on part one of this series you must ask yourself;

First – Where did the information come from?And second – Does it make sense?

Does this information make sense in the world, in my life, in my health?

The questions my students asked don’t make sense. Here are my answers:

What? Unless your bra is radio active, you’re safe.

I’m not sure what nonspecific toxins you’re worried about but you already have a built in system that cleans your colon. If you feel you must help your colon, then consume vegetables in the usual route.

Oh for god’s sake. Water (H20) is one molecule away from air (02) but that doesn’t make water air, nor does any chemical reaction in the body convert water to air.

Sometimes I’m a little less sarcastic, but after a few days of heading off discussions about juice fasts, the danger of vaccinations, or evil microwave ovens, I sometimes wonder where our common sense has gone. I only partially blame the question-askers for their fears. I do blame the internet, fringe media, and late night infomercials but after that, it’s our job to ask the questions.

If you really want to save the world, step away from the internet and get some exercise. Tweet This Quote

To that end, a dog’s mouth is not cleaner than a human’s, giving up all carbohydrates is lunacy, and if binge eating is bad for you then fasting is bad as well (unless for religious reasons).

If you think about these things for just a few minutes you will see that none of them make any sense in this world. If you really want to save the world, step away from the internet and get some exercise. That makes sense.

If something does make sense then do your research and come right back here for the final question of this 3 part series and I’ll put it all in perspective.

Author Ann Garvin

Ann is an author, speaker and educator. As professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy at University of Wisconsin Whitewater, she has worked extensively in psychometrics, statistics and psychology. Ann is the author of On Maggie’s Watch & The Dog Year (Berkley Penguin, 2014).